This too shall pass.

(It felt damn good.)

 Nice summary. Haters going to hate. Fans are going to enjoy the win and regardless of the lack of style points. 

And I think we should take Harbaugh at his word when asked about the pass game.  He said there needed to be better communication between the sidelines and players to get the players in the right play calls and alignments.  That could fall on both the coaches and players, and something to work on this week.

This is where they miss Bell as one of the big areas he improved on was understanding the whole offense.  He can still help the wide outs with that, and they’ll hopefully step up.

I mean, we couldn’t really complete a downfield pass. Sure, we won, but it would have been nice to have reliably completed a downfield pass, or at least looked competent doing so. (The one downfield completion to CoJo, which accounted for 75% of our passing yardage, was way under thrown and lucky.) Even the short passing game looked incompetent. We won this game, which is great, but if this doesn’t make you nervous for the future, then you are a much happier, more optimistic person generally than I am. 

"Saving it for Later" is a movie that's been out for a while so many people have already seen it. It's unfortunate that people are trying to spoil it for you though.

I’m convinced if Cade was 35-50 for 450 yards and 4 TD’s and we had 50 yards rushing but we lost the game, some people here would actually be happier.  “ Hey we actually had a modern offense!”  
 

Guys, the brain trust obviously thinks the best way to win right now is to keep it on the ground.  Winning a game with all rushing when the other team has a good D and knows you’re going to run is impressive.  I don’t get why it’s somehow worse than throwing the ball.  Now, if they stick to that plan when it isn’t working, feel free to complain all you want.

Do none of you remember what it felt like to watch Wisconsin do that to Michigan? 

Yes, that was my exact thought as well. Washington is a P5 program and its defense apparently has some NFL talent. I hope Harbaugh doesn't think he can do that every week, but last night was fun.

I loved seeing the dominance up front. That was something that has been lacking, no doubt. And when something is working, you keep doing it until the opposition stops you. However, the few attempt at passing looked pretty bad. Protection was not good, and the receivers do not seem to be able to get separation. I don't really like what I've seen of Josh Gattis' passing attack. I don't believe our current receivers compare favorably with the ones who have been on the roster in the past. Cade McNamara is a good game manager, but he is not a first team QB on an elite team. For these reasons, and the fact that Ronnie Bell is out for the season, I am less than optimistic about the ability of the offense to move the chains and score against teams that are stout against the run. Unfortunately, this can only be addressed through recruiting, and recruits want to see a team that looks like it has a sophisticated approach to the passing game.  

Sometime in the first quarter, Cade threw at solid B+ ball at a receiver one-on-one with the CB, and had a step.  The CB effortlessly broke the pass up.  If that was a B- throw, it would've been intercepted.  Meanwhile, Michigan was getting whatever they wanted on the ground.  

Just win the game.

I agree with you. I’ll repeat what I said in the game column: conventional wisdom is that you keep running till that safety creeps up then you throw over him. Well that safety never creeped up. And Washington didn’t get out of nickel. They kept playing with 3 down lineman. Never went super beef. So Michigan just took the yards the defense gave them. 
 

And once again, those swing passes in the 1st quarter were setting downs on fire because the DBs held those to no gain. So testing the edges didn’t work. I’m glad they went away from that. Because if a swing pass to uncovered Blake Corum gets -4 yards, then are we really confident in any WR getting enough separation consistently?

There have been some very successful championship teams that largely have lived off the run.  I think our hated rival and even Bama have lived off the run primarily for most of the last 2 decades and really only passed when necessary.

Of course, no one wins a NC without at least a decent passing game and that is true now more than ever, but there's still a lot be said for toting the rock.

On the other side of the ball, I've been fairly impressed with our defensive work in 2 games.  It's obvious that we have some weaknesses at the corners and yet MacDonald, Clinkscale and Bellamy have done a pretty good job minimizing / disguising that so far.  Hopefully, they can continue to maximize the skills of the talent that they have.

It's not the run/pass distribution I dislike.

It's the impotence of the routes being run.

When your yards per carry exceed what would qualify as a strong yards per attempt metric, 

Best line of the post.... I confess, I was yelling at tv for what it seemed only inside runs.  The runs were correct, though doesn't change me wanting to see Cade throw deep.

I've got no axe to grind here. For whatever reason, the game plan worked well. On the other hand, it's legit to be concerned when the passes that are attempted appear kind of iffy. I give some credit to the opponent's defense. 

One item about the run game last night is perhaps overlooked: The defense got to rest. It's especially hard on a D-line to be out there all game - just ask the Washington players, or their coach who said they were worn down.

We saw how quickly Washington could score when they started to get hot late in the game. But they didn't have a lot of time or a lot of chances, and we got key stops, perhaps aided by the fact that the defense wasn't exhausted. Of course, by that late in the game Washington was pretty much out of time to pull the game out.

I'm good with a W. It'll be an interesting season.

All of this shit is waaaaay overblown. If you're worried about the passing game, don't worry about the number of passes thrown. Worry about effeciency and where they were attacking with the pass.

I didn't see a whole lot of PAP and that seems concerning b/c with the success of the running game, I'd assume that UW would have been fooled. Then again, coaches look for this specifically and if the safeties aren't rolling up to stop the run while M runs for 7 ypc, then they aren't going to get fooled  by a fake hand off.

I'd be worried about the screen/RB passing game or lack of quick slants and the poor accuracy from Cade on short passes. Effeciency is the issue, not the bulk numbers.

Re: recruiting impact. The simple truth is, we don't have the experienced playmakers at WR. They are young and not All B10 level players. To an 11th grader, that's a big flashing sign that says "PT avaialble." We didn't throw for shit in 1997 either. Yet somehow Drew Henson and David Terrell and Marquise Walker still came to A2. Different era, yes. But the flip side is, what RBs and OLs wouldn't want to play in the offense we saw Sat?

Biakabatuka game like stats: it was glorious - worrying this early in the season without other P5 data points sure - but glorious just the same.

The Wisconsin reference is a good point.

I can’t get over the whole we should have passed more noise. The number of formations, personnel groupings, and plays run is going to have DCs swimming for a bit. To the educated eye, not one based purely in end of game stats, you can see the number of layers this offense has that teams have to respect. There was a twins gun pro formation w/ Honigford and Baldwin bunched tight to the formation on the far hash where Haskins ran for 6 or 7 yards. Cade made the right read and put us in 2nd and short. The overhand and the corner who had edge responsibilities because of the TE had to honor their routes which allowed a cutback lane for Haskins. The offense is working and setting up numerous ways to get guys the ball from different looks. 
 

You can coach Cade up on some reads, adjust some protection calls but honestly we’re not running into a legit NFL caliber DB, LET ALONE 2, until Penn State late in the season. The next big test is Wisconsin. Their best defensive player is Jack Sanborn, who will be playing on Sunday’s, but outside of that their secondary, though well coached, cannot run with the group even without Ronnie Bell. You put them in conflict and continue to run this powerful of a rushing attack and guys will be open. The concern about the passing game is a bit too soon IMO. On top of which, if Cade cannot make the throws, 5 Star JJ McCarthy is there with a hose of an arm. 

Yes comrade! The Rich Rod Wisconsin game was exactly what I thought of on that glorious drive.